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Teulu Owain Owain: Tywyn, Llangefni, Llanfair Pwllgwyngyll

Summer is for canoeing and climbing the Anglesey Column; autumn features netball, and winter the warmth of a family Christmas.

Home movie 1972 10 mins Silent

From the collection of:

Logo for National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales

Overview

Owain Owain (1929-93), scientist, teacher, and writer pivotal in the development of Cymdeithas Yr Iaith, for which he designed the logo, captures his family on film across the 1970s: wife Eira, children Geraint, Robin, Nia and Gwenllian. Living at β€˜Cil-Enlli’, a newly built house in Tywyn, they go canoeing (the CYI logo visible on car and t-shirt), help builders tarmac the drive and holiday on Anglesey. Nia scores in a game of netball and Christmas lights the winter.

Born in Pwllheli, the son of a quarryman, Owain married Mary Louise Eira Lloyd in 1954, daughter of a Carmarthenshire farmer. She was a primary teacher who continued her career in 1973, after a family break, at schools in Corris, Llanegryn and Tywyn. Owain worked at Windscale (Sellafield), purifying plutonium for military purposes from which he turned to teaching chemistry, art and maths at school and university level in London, Bala, Pwllheli, Bangor and Tywyn. He was the first full-time head of the Urdd camp at Glan Llyn, and from 1977-85 deputy director of education in Gwynedd. He was an artist who wrote on science and politics as well as novels, short stories and poetry.